Alexandra Stein explores the social psychology of totalitarianism, cults and other dangerous relationships. And looks at the alternative: democracy, diversity and resilience in the human community.

Why this blog?

By Alexandra Stein on November 14, 2010 10:35 AM

Solomon Asch, one of the great social psychologists, said this in his 1952 classic, Social Psychology: "the greater man's ignorance of the principles of his social surroundings, the more subject is he to their control; and the greater his knowledge of their operations and of their necessary consequences, the freer he can become with regard to them."

Yet so few people are taught these principles of (as Asch again says): "how individuals create the reality of groups and how the latter control their further actions."

So in this blog I intend to contribute to spreading the word a bit, by posting and discussing items that are relevant to this effort to understand our social world and the groups that we create and in which we exist.